Improvement in mattresses



Erica.

THOMAS G. CLINTON, OF CINCINNATI, OI-IIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN MATTRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. @$83, dated April 20, 1852.

To all whom, t may concern.'

Be it known that I, THOMAS G. CLINTON, of Cincinnati, Hamilton county, Ohio, have invented or discoveredA a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Mattresses, Cushions for Sleeping-Sofas, tbe., the stuffing of which is made to consist of animal matter-such as cattles hair, wool, or featherstreated after the manner of or steeped with hides of cattle iu the lime-vats of a tan-yard or other suitable place, or of animal mattersuch as the articles mention ed-and vegetable matter-such as moss, corn-shucks, hemp, hay, flax, straw, bc-subjected to au analogous process, conjointly or separately, and manufactured into mattresses, conjointly or separately, or forming with such vegetable or other animal matter (other than the hair of the hides of cattle, as described) a mattress or bed or cushion by interposing them between layers of such hair iu a felted condition, or commingling the whole together, such hair not being in a felted condition, of which the following is a speeication.

Hair as stripped from the hides of cattle in the lime-vats of atan-yard, gathered, beaten,

Aand mingled with moss or other vegetable (the hair of the hides of cattle not being feltedh but only gathered and whipped) will make a mattress upon which a ehinch or bedbug will A not come nor willingly stay.

Having applied the hair of the hides of cattle taken from thelime-vats of atan-yard crudely felted, so as to have it somewhat regular in thickness and smooth in surface', and filled up the uneven places with wool and moss, and covered it with ticking so as to constitute the whole what is usuallycalled a mattress, I have possessed myself of satisfactory evidence by actual use of the same for several years that a harmless antidote to that trouble some nuisance a ehineh or bedbug had at last dawned upon the world. The article looks, smells, and wears like any other mattress, and renders poisonous mixtures as applied to beds and bedsteads a needless danger.

The hair of the tails of cattle has been baked to increase its curl and elasticity and used in the manufacture of mattrasses; but it is well known that bedbugs infest such mattresses.

I am not aware (and I have made diligent inquiry) that the hair stripped from the hides of cattle after and during liming has ever been used otherwise than for admixture with plasterfor closing or ceiling in the apartments of houses and other building purposes, and in a felted condition for covering in steam-boilers as a non-conductor. I have discovered that this substance, felted or unfelted and mixed or unmixed with known upholstering materials, produces in the particular articles I am illustrating a new and useful result, and `this I aver after an experimental trial of several years to the satisfaction of myself and other disinterested parties. Itis obvious that the upholsterer can apply this discovery throughout the whole of this branch of his trade-viz., to sleeping-sofas, Ottomans, cushions,and other analogous articles.

The manufacture ot' felt made of the hair of cattle, as described, since the date of my discovery has been carried to great perfection for the purpose of covering boilers for steam machinery, the., so that it can now readily be obtained of suitable length and wwidth and at a reasonable price.

Two figures iu the drawings annexed to and made part of this specification represent each a vertical section of a mattress or bed or cushion. In Figure l the hair of the hides of cattle is shown as in a felted condition and placed a layer above and a layer below the various vegetable interposingsubstances made to constitute the bodyof the article. ct ci is the felted hair. h is a stuffing of cotton. e is a Vstuffing of moss, and d astufiing of split cornshucks, the whole covered in with ticking in the usual way. In Fig. 2 the conglomerate style of manufacturing such articles is illustrated, the hair, moss, cotton, and shucks being intimately commingled.

Having thus complied with the patent laws of the United States in the matter of my discovery treated at length in the speciiication of description and in the drawings annexed thereto and made part of the same, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

The use of the hair of hides of cattle treated sacking bottoms, or analogous articles, Whereby a neT result is attainedviz., an article obnoxious tobedbugs without the necessity of any temporary application of poisonous mixtures thereto, thus furnishing the world with a harmless antidote to a great nuisance and abolishing the necessity for a great peril to human life in the domestic circle.

'FI-IOS. G. CLINTON. Attest:

B. K. MoRsELL,

JOHN SETON JOHNS. 

